“Did it work?” a woman from operations asked. “Calling them names?”
“Well, with Nosferatu, breathing gets their attention. It wasn’t so much the words as the activity behind it. You see, we were dead. But, because of Bethany Anne and her antics, we decided we were going to go down fighting showing those cum-camels our middle finger. The two bastards crisscrossed and one got to John, broke his arm, backhanded him damn near unconscious and grabs John’s knife. Nosferatu are strong. This one took John’s knife and shoved it all the way through his Kevlar vest. The punch with the blade was so strong, John flew something like thirty feet…”
“Ten feet, Escabar. Shit, get the story right,” John retorted.
“Hey, you tell it your way, I’ll tell it mine,” Eric shot back before turning back to his table. “That leaves that particular Nosferatu in front of us, and we all unload on his ass. Darryl and Scott go after the last Nosferatu, and I rush to John, whose knife is fucking embedded in his chest. Blood is coming out of his mouth and then John is busy trying to confess he’s always loved me and …”
“Do I need to come over there and beat your ass, Eric?” John asked.
“Okay, he didn’t, but he calls me a prick so I ask him what Bethany Anne had said about crap level cussing and he looks back over my shoulder and says, ‘I don’t know, why don’t we ask the little rectal hole dictator herself?’” This time, Eric’s table erupted in laughter, and Bethany Anne just shook her head.
This was the third such party on the actual anniversary of the event and the team always tried to listen to see where Eric was working to pad the story and get his story back on track.
Which was to say, somewhere near reality.
Eric put down his beer. “This is the best part, I promise.” His table quieted down. “So, John is there dying, knife in his chest and Bethany Anne is willing to help save him. She drinks blood out of pouches, and then she yanks the knife while I get the vest and shirt and shit off of him. She slices her wrist and gets him to drink the blood and then puts some on his chest wound. Now, you know we’re connected with an alien now, but back then we didn’t have a clue. John is healing from the nanocytes in the blood and Bethany Anne collapses beside him, spent herself.”
Eric looks around and leans forward to his table, lowering his voice as the others leaned into to hear him. “So John wakes up and is a little freaked about turning into a vampire. We promise him that he isn’t going to, or at least that’s what Bethany Anne has told us. So, then John flops his left arm around and his hand lands on Bethany Anne’s chest and he ends up groping the boss.” Eyes around the table opened wide, not believing Eric who put up three fingers. “Scout’s honor, no shit. Then, Bethany Anne says, ‘I just spent a lot of effort to heal you, Mr. Grimes. If you don’t get your hand off my tit, I’m going to waste all of that effort when I kill you myself.’”
People started laughing, and Eric, smiling wide, put his hand up to quiet them down. “John says, ‘Well, what do I spend the points on for cussing creatively if not to buy a quick feel?’ and Bethany Anne says, and I’m not kidding, ‘John, I have a headache.’”
This time, there was no keeping Eric’s table quiet as they saw Bethany Anne place her head in her hands as if she was trying to hide.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Schwabenland, Antarctica
“Is this the right choice, Maria?” Horst asked her.
Maria was sitting at the table, listening to those who would decide where they would go. While Maria’s decision was accepted as the core desire, the decision about to where all of them should go was something that those at the top needed to agree upon. It was larger than just a location, it concerned what would happen to their legacy as well.
Schwabenland would be no more.
Maria looked around the table at the other eight people present. She smiled at them all and gave the tiniest of shrugs. “I cannot be sure, but I can tell you that the decision allows me to sleep at night.”
“We left one war to join another,” Horst said. “Ironic, that.”
“Were we ever not at war, Horst?” she asked. Maria could tell that those with concerns had voted Horst the spokesperson. “We made a deal with the devil to be here. I’m sure he thought once he took care of the world, he would have time to deal with us.”
“Then the Americans came,” Horst reminded her.
“Yes, they did. And you and the guards of freedom fought for our own version of independence. Choosing never to accept a world leader over us again.”
“And what is changing your mind now?” Horst asked.
Maria looked at those around the table. “Relations… and time.” She turned back to Horst. “Would you want to fight, continue to fight, against those here on Earth? We have been attacked already, and the Etheric Empire is leaving.” She pointed up, towards space. “They are leaving to take the fight for Earth’s freedom away from here. It makes sense. We have a choice. Never again will we have freedom due to obscurity here. No, we have the opportunity to be welcomed in any country. Not for our bodies,” there were a few smiles around the table, “but for our minds and more importantly, for our technology. Once they have that? Well, we would be irrelevant once again.”
“And the Etheric Empire, what do they want us for?” Horst asked. Not in a disrespectful manner, but a firm request nonetheless.
“Actually, nothing.” Maria answered, “Our technologies are not as powerful as what they have already mastered. Their people, some of their people, are so advanced by genetic and nanocyte manipulation they will live to be hundreds of years old.”
“I thought Barnabas was already centuries old?” Horst asked.
“He is, Horst. He has lived over ten centuries. If you want to know the measure of evil, he will tell you that he has lived it. At one time, he feels he was the living embodiment of evil.”
“And we would follow such as this?” Cheryl, a woman wearing a faded green dress asked from her left. Her hair, long and gray, fell past her shoulders. “Can evil redeem itself?”
“That is the existential question, isn’t it Cheryl?” Maria said. “It is not the actions that need to change. Those are imprinted in history, and one can only atone for the actions. No, the question is can one’s soul change.”
“So, what is the answer?” Horst demanded.
Maria blew out a breath. “I’ve come to understand that to answer the question, we need to ask that of ourselves.”
“What! How so?” Horst asked, surprised.
“Because, I’ve been in contact with the alien TOM. It seems that those who provided myself and my sisters with help are not generally considered wise, caring and as wonderful as perhaps we thought them.” She shrugged. “So, from that perspective, if it is true, we have implemented evil. It was only due to something happening on the Aldebaran’s side—what I don’t know—that we didn’t finish the plans necessary to have them arrive here.”
“How were we supposed to know?” Cheryl interrupted.
“Is result, or intent the deciding factor, here?” Maria asked. “Because, I understand our intent was correct. However, the result might have been the subjugation of Earth, had we been successful.”
“Why do you believe this alien, TOM?” Horst asked.
“Because I have a soft spot for aliens?” she answered with a smile. “No, I asked him to allow me to speak with the Yollin captain, Kael-ven as well. Between the two, they convinced me it is more likely than not.”
“How does this tie in to Barnabas?” Cheryl said.
“When he was ‘in his evil mind,’ others had killed his spouse. He does not remember that time. It was after this event he went and lived as a monk, seeking peace and wisdom away from humanity as much as possible. Asking questions incessantly.”
“That hasn’t changed,” Horst muttered.
“No,” Maria answered to the amusement of the others. “He still asks a lot of questions, that is true. But, he was wise enough to find out if Bethany Anne c
ould contain the beast he fears is still within himself, should it become uncaged.”
“What happened?” Cheryl asked.
“I understand she knocked him out many times before he realized he should stop asking questions that pissed her off,” Maria answered dryly.
“Wow, wish that was possible for me,” Horst said as he stared at Maria.
“Bully,” she replied.
“Oh, sure, the whole weak woman card,” Horst grinned. “This century seems much more about gender equality, Maria.”
“Well, I’ll inform Bethany Anne or one of the other women you wish to work out with them, shall I?”
“Let’s not get hasty here, those are young women, and I’d hate to have an unfortunate lesson learned.”
“Ageist,” Maria retorted.
“I have allergies against black and blue marks,” Horst responded. “They don’t heal very quickly anymore.”
“Hmmph,” Cheryl said. “So, you believe that a human can do evil, but without intent, it isn’t the same?”
Maria nodded. “In this case, yes. But I want to caution you that I feel for those here on Earth and I would try to help our nation, at some level, with our technology.”
“What does TQB say about it?” Horst asked.
“They believe it could lead to destabilization between the world powers. However, while TQB is trying to find those that attacked us, they have not at this point. I would provide the technology transfer with some qualifications that should keep the advance down, to a degree anyhow. If the people who came after us are not found, then our country can catch up to the technology, I should hope. Should an alien race, of which we unaware of at this time, try to impose their will on the Earth, then I presume those in Germany would share the technology so the world could quickly respond.”
Maria shrugged. “Those that wish to remain may stay. Those that wish to go with me to another star system, may go with me. Who is voting to go?”
Maria looked around the table and nodded in relief.
Every hand was raised.
A dark field outside Brussels, Belgium
“If you think I’m going to go to the trees with you, Abd, you’ve been bitten too many times by a camel,” Paula said to the man who was trying to coerce her to go for a walk.
Just a little one.
“Abd, stand back,” Abdullah ordered as he joined them. Abd made excuses and went over to the huddle of twenty men waiting and smoking some ten paces away.
“If you were wearing proper clothing, this would not happen,” Abdullah told her.
“You and I both know that is a lousy excuse. I should be able to walk naked like I was brought into this world through here, unmolested.”
“Perhaps that is how it should be, but it is not how it is,” Abdullah explained. “When one is stronger, the temptations can be quite difficult to subdue.”
“Then, perhaps it is a good thing I have a pistol to help me with negotiations, yes?” Paula asked.
Abdullah looked down and saw her hand revealing a concealed weapon. “Yes. The cat has claws I see,” he said.
“No, the cat has nine rounds,” Paula said, “and multiple mags if necessary to continue the discussion.”
Abdullah looked up into the night sky. “When is this magical carpet ride going to get here?”
“He’s already up there,” Paula said. “He’s just waiting for me to let him know to land.”
Abdullah looked at her. “Why didn’t you tell him to land already?”
Paula took a couple of steps forward and said over her shoulder, “Because it would have been easier for him to shoot all of the people here if someone was going to be stupid with me.”
Paula told the men to move back or be flattened. Moments later, one of the larger Majestic 12 ships landed silently just meters from them. Standing on four legs, a ramp lowered from underneath the ship. Two men with weapons exited the craft.
Tyler went to speak with Abdullah, Antony approached Paula. “Trouble?”
She shrugged. “Nothing I couldn’t handle. This isn’t my first rodeo, and it would have been more trouble to find another twenty willing participants quickly.”
“Understood,” he said, and leaned a little closer. “Just to be clear, they know everyone is getting off and shooting across in space, right? We aren’t landing anywhere inside.”
Paula turned towards the twenty men and nodded, whispering, “Everyone understands this will put them in the history books as the first suicide bombers in space, for the glory of Allah.”
Antony straightened up. “Well, they’ll be that much closer to heaven when they explode. They don’t have bombs on them now, right?”
Paula smiled grimly. “No, I explained their stuff wasn’t going to work well in outer space.”
She turned back to Antony and said, “I told them our bombs are much better.”
New Mexico, USA
One week was how long it took Barnabas to track Abesemmins to D.C. then the others to follow him back to a location in New Mexico before they lost him when he flew into the desert and disappeared underground.
It made sense, actually. Barnabas and others had decided that the most likely location of the people they were searching for was underground. That said, the site also needed to be in a relatively unpopulated area. However, when you have dozens, if not hundreds of ways to leave from over two thousand square miles? It boggled the mind pinpointing where they were really hidden.
So, Team BMW came up with a solution using a mix of existing technology for drones out of Japan and adding additional technologies, including self-destruct sequences that would go into effect if the system ever was out of contact with its primary for more than thirty seconds.
It was time.
The dropship Pod, unseen above the clouds, dropped three small, dark gray parent orbs into the night.
They fell the three miles before slowing their mad rush to finally hover just inches above the ground. Alone in the night, no humans saw the first orb open a hole and disgorge twelve flying insects.
Made of metal.
Receiving instructions, the insects fluttered away, each to a site that allowed them entrance into the underground cavern system below.
The second and third orbs moved silently in the night. The first stopped five miles south of the first location and released twelve of its own drones.
The third was three miles to the west, doing the same thing.
Each insect drone flew into the caves and then continued on, mapping the inside with 3D laser technology and uploading the information directly to their parent.
The controlling drone then sent the information to the dropship Pod which sent the information Etherically to ArchAngel.
Before long, thirty-six tiny drones were mapping the caverns in the Dulce Lake region. Occasionally, one would have to stop and backtrack back out. Five times, the little drones had to leave the cavern they were searching and seek another surface entrance to reenter into the caves and continue their task.
The cavern system, ArchAngel calculated, was huge.
Every fifteen hours, the little drones would return to the main pod for a recharge, then go back into the system again. Occasionally, they would get different orders, depending on what ArchAngel was piecing together.
ADAM was watching the results with interest. If ever an A.I. could be said to feel emotion, then it was happening now.
ADAM was feeling pleasure.
Boston, MA, USA
Charles nodded to the security officer, then drove past the gate into the large country estate. He didn’t recognize this security person, but then again he didn’t pay much attention to the security guards, anyway.
The only reason he noticed this time was because the guard looked Japanese. A strange occurrence, to be sure, but not out of the realm of possibility.
Charles pulled into his spot marked with a large Cyrillic ‘C’ on the ground. The next two spots were labeled with the letters ‘F’ and ‘D’ respe
ctively.
The Kurtherian Gambit Omnibus 05 - The Fans Version: My Ride is a Bitch - Don't Cross This Line - Never Submit Page 39